Colleges

Plenty of players and coaches with Baltimore ties feel at home during the CIAA basketball tournament, while others are experiencing the city for the first time. Some, of course, are most excited about the crab cakes.

LSU clinched the No. 2 seed, behind top-ranked South Carolina, in the SEC tournament to be played March 6-10 in Greenville, South Carolina.

The financial returns for the CIAA tournaments’s most recent editions in Baltimore have been positive, but there's still “so much room to grow.”

The CIAA tournament is about much more than basketball.

Elizabeth City State won it's first women's title last year, but will face fierce competition this time around.

Winston-Salem State looks to defend its title when the tournament begins Monday.

Basketball may be strong at the rec and high school levels, but above that the city is somewhat starved.

Jordan Stiemke led the Greyhounds (6-23, 4-12 Patriot) with 23 points.

Benigni added five rebounds for the Midshipmen (10-17, 6-10 Patriot League).

Bri McDaniel had 21 points and Brinae Alexander added 16 for the Terrapins (16-11, 8-8 Big Ten), who had their four-game win streak snapped.

The Terrapins (15-13, 7-10 Big Ten) had lost five of six games since the beginning of February and were 3-7 in their last 10.

Reese finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds. She has 2,006 career points, 1,287 at LSU.

Malik Battle led the Eagles (2-22, 1-9 Mid-Eastern Athletic), who lost their eighth straight, with 27 points.

Lefty Driesell changed the direction of college basketball at the University of Maryland, in the South and elsewhere, and his recruitment of Black players was a big part of that, author and longtime sports journalist David Steele says.

Reese recorded her sixth career game with 25 points and 20 rebounds.

Tejada added six rebounds for the Tigers (17-11, 10-5 Coastal Athletic Association).

Success of CIAA Tournament in Baltimore points to other opportunities to partner with HBCUs, Terry Hasseltine, executive director of the Maryland Sports Commission, says.

The Midshipmen stopped an eight-game skid.

Queen, who starred at St. Frances Academy before transferring to Florida's Montverde Academy, chose the Terps over Indiana, Kansas and Houston.

Lefty Driesell, who died Saturday at 92, was a creator and innovator who put Maryland basketball on an upward trajectory and had a hand in making college basketball what it is today.